It's not every day we try to emulate our childhoods when it comes to clothes. A princess dress, a dog-embroidered T-shirt and polka dot tights don't quite have the same pull as they did when we were five. And yet, Matthieu Blazy went back to the nursery to seek inspiration for the Chanel Autumn/Winter 2026 Haute Couture show, centred entirely around fairy tales: Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and a not-so-ugly duckling included.
"I started to wonder, was Gabrielle Chanel's life a fairy tale? I found a small book in her library, Les Fées, Contes des Contes, and asked myself if, together with the Haute Couture ateliers, we could make garments that tell stories like a book," he wrote in the show notes. Though I can't help but wonder whether perhaps something else was also at play.
The feeling of nostalgia is no stranger to the world of fashion. It's why we have a cyclical rotation of trends every twenty years, bringing back pieces that hold fond memories. It's why we're often so attached to our clothes, hoarding pieces that are too small for us. And it's why certain items of clothing attach themselves to memories.
But in the world of Haute Couture, where expert craftsmanship is met with incredibly high price tags and an incredibly tight circle of guests who actually get to see the collection in real life, all mingling together to create something far out of the grasp of many of our memories, Chanel's fairy tale has flung the doors open for connection. A beanstalk-covered shoe, a scarecrow-like straw hat and a plumped-up plume suddenly seem far more sentimental when our favourite childhood characters sweetly peek through. Our emotional ties tugged, even through the lens of ultra-luxury.
And typically, as is the way of Chanel, they fully committed to the theme: wild vines, toxic flowers and tiny chairs to create the illusion of being inside a giant beanstalk all added to the whimsy. Plus the soundtrack, a softer rendition of the 1997 hit "Kiss Me" (you know, kiss me under the milky twilight, lead me out on the moonlit floor) only enhanced the nostalgia effect.
So it's far from just beauty, though there was a huge amount of that on display, as well as talent, behind Blazy and Chanel yet again commanding such enormous attention. Our emotional connection to clothes, and the deeper meanings behind them, instead taking centre stage.
